Wine-Dark Mother and the Trapper's Son

by Jim Churchill Dicks

Jim Churchill-Dicks' poetry collection Wine-Dark Mother and the Trapper's Son witnesses the explosive landscapes of fractured families with a level gaze as tender as it is reckoning.

The ill-loved child craves reconciliation the adults around them are not equipped to provide; these poems excavate the journey into adulthood that requires each of us to reconcile with ourselves and our fractured histories when it is already too late. Here is truth-telling and compassion for our fathers' and mothers' failures—and our own. The mother, observed asleep: "Is she dead?" …"Do not wake up./This is who you/want to be. This is who you promised you'd be." The father, "peeling his orange flight-suit halfway down, a snake shedding skin…'I lost him,' …'My boy has augured in'…intermittent streetlights staining his warm, wet face."

Tectonic violence jerks the ground under these poems. Recurring images of smoke, ash, volcanic eruptions, and what we see in the plumes create an ominous and contested beauty: "Spirit, what do you want?/What do you want me to know/among these yellow leaves?" contrasts with hollow despair: "That plume is a woman/who just couldn't take any more—"

As the collection progresses, the images begin to cohere into a larger skyscape of un-easy forgiveness. There are no shortcuts here, no platitudes in place of real integration: "Whatever we say no to/comes back and sticks/to us a little bit" … "And herein lies the revocation,/the cancellation of the debt". In the final piece of the collection, "Farewell Poem to a Living Father," Churchill-Dicks closes the journey precisely where and how it must be closed: "take this folded paper/and give it to the boatman/when he asks you/if you were loved."

Few writers have either the courage or the capacity for specificity that is required to tell the complex truth of a family's immense cruelties, or its fragile loves. In Wine-Dark Mother and the Trapper's Son, Churchill-Dicks reminds us of the fact that in Jewish tradition, witness is an active verb; a difficult praxis and a real action toward reconstituting the world and making whole what was scattered. In these poems' reconstitution of memory, soul, and family, we are enabled to more fiercely and truly witness our own.
- Jessamyn Smyth, author of The Inugami Mochi and Kitsune

62 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2016

Reviews

[Paul Grimsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am incredibly biased on this book because I published it - I think it is brilliantly written. It has that lyrical beauty that one wants in poetry, and it is coupled with a raw emotional punch that resonates with you long after you have read each poem. A fantastic read from a great guy and fantastic writer!

[Kurt Kemmerer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes one simply appreciates the poetry, despite a struggle for connection to the poems. And sometimes one gets to both appreciate the poetry and connect to the emotions, the communion of the characters in all aspects of life on the page. Mr. Churchill-Dicks book easily fits into the latter, for the likes of me. My eyes moistened more than once, yes, with empathy for the humanity on the page, but also because that humanity tied itself to my own stories, to the last time I saw my paternal grandmother, to my own failings as a parent, to grief, to a semblance of hope, to love. I don't know if you can ask for more.

[Ian Yarington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to win this in the giveaways and I'm glad because I don't really buy poetry books. I enjoy them but there are so many books on my list they fall to the bottom of the "to buy list." I'm not sure how to review poetry besides saying that I really enjoyed it. It felt very emotional and sincere, I had a good time reading it.

[AnonymousReviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterpiece. All I have to say

[Lisa Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a series of poems. Some of them have interesting imagery of nature. For example, I liked the comparison of his father peeling his orange flight suit like a snake shedding his skin, all while chugging a jug of milk. Most of the poems have a hefty sense of anger, as if the author is still working through issues from his childhood. I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and I think I just don't enjoy reading entire books of modern poetry. I'm sure readers who like edgy contemporary poetry will enjoy this more than I did.

[Syndi Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was the lucky winner of this book through a goodreads win. it is a beautifully written poetry book that runs the full gamet of human emotions. you can feel the author's pain and joy as he explores his upbringing. the images the author uses are very moving. i enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading more of jim churchhill-dicks work. syndi

[Philip Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

If one can house a hundred emotions simultaneously, then Jim Churchill-Dicks would be their translator. When one reads Jim Churchill-Dicks, then one will confront a hundred emotions at once, with a sense of completion that has little to do with our mutual human needs for resolve.